1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backlight assembly. More particularly, the present invention relates to a lamp socket, a backlight assembly having the lamp socket, and a method for assembling the lamp socket.
2. Description of the Related Art
A backlight assembly used in a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) apparatus is classified into a direct-illumination type backlight assembly and an edge-illumination type backlight assembly according to an arrangement of a light source.
A cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) is mainly used for the light source of the backlight assembly. The direct-illumination type backlight assembly having the CCFL includes a lamp holder or a lamp socket to fix the lamps to a bottom plate of a receiving container.
When the lamp holder is used to fix the lamps to the bottom plate of the receiving container, an electrode portion of the lamp and a wire are connected via a soldering process, and the lamps are manually combined with the lamp holder, so that many problems such as deterioration of a reliability of the soldering and so on exist in the assembling performance. In order to solve the problems, a lamp socket matched up with the electrode portion of the lamps has been developed. The lamp socket fixes the lamp to the receiving container and is combined with the electrode portion of the lamp without the soldering process. Thus, a lamp socket type backlight assembly may have the better assembling performance and the better reliability than a lamp holder type backlight assembly.
In the lamp socket type backlight assembly, a design of a socket body including a plastic based material and a power applying terminal including a metal based material is important. Particularly, the CCLF is fragile to an external impact. Thus, the power applying terminal and the socket body are required to decrease an insertion force and to increase the reliability of electrical contact, when a lead wire of the lamp is inserted into the power applying terminal.